Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Protest Child Labour in Football !!

I always had heard and believed that child labour is bad. For all the labour women go through to get children into the world, making the child labour too, obviously, isn’t fair. Looks like FIFA doesn’t believe in this. Neither do the Football Federations of various countries. Disclaimer: If you have a weak heart, if you are a child labour or woman to be in labour, please discontinue reading for this post narrates the cruelties on children in football.

Firstly, children are mercilessly made to stand up holding the sweaty hands of the footballers, who are waiting to get on the field for the match. Poor children might feel dizzy and nauseous by the stink of the sweat. Though this may not be thought of as a health hazard immediately, but continuous exposure may alter the children’s sense of smell and may take a dislike to football and football players. I strongly oppose this torture. It is bad for the children and so for the sport’s future. This can be rectified by FIFA by asking the children to hold hands with footballers’ wives. The perfume would be the best in the world and hand, not as rough as the footballers. :)

Secondly, they are pulled by the footballers to the pitch and made to stand in the sun with country flag’s in hand when their national anthem is being played. If the national anthem is like that of Jamaica, which is more like a pop song, at least children can have fun waving the flags and dancing along. But alas, not all anthems are like that. To counter this, all nations should follow Jamaica’s music for their anthems during football matches.

Then there are children who get the huge round cloth to cover the centre of the pitch, put it there for some time and then run back again to retrieve it. Football was never meant to make porters out of children. This should be done by adults or by footballers themselves.

As if this wasn’t enough, the children are not paid for what they do. Yeah, they might be given a coke can(because coke is a sponsor), but then again, that’s imposing coke on children who might like Pepsi. Doesn’t FIFA have a heart?

FIFA needs to alter the rules and regulations to immediately and put a full stop to this unsympathetic and hard-hearted torture towards children. Asking naïve children to do stuff in the name of sport is so unbecoming of the international federation.We, football lovers have started a protest group against FIFA. Come and join hands to end this child labour. In the first meeting of the forum, David Beckham will be lighting the lamp. Please join asap and early birds get to hold hands with Beckham.